Wednesday, October 22, 2008

holiday birthdays

December 23, 1972 had a full moon -a perfect night for a young adult Sunday school class to go hayriding and Christmas caroling. After the music, they congregated at the pastor's house for a potluck meal: ladies in one room, men in the other. As my Dad took his first bite of dessert, a lady came in and told him he had to go - my Mom was in labor. After everything was cleaned and put away, a group of men followed the hay from Dad's truck to a nearby hospital. I've been told they managed to get to the nursery and sang, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" though my Mom disputes that. All I know is that has never been my favorite Christmas carol.As a child, I sometimes hated having a birthday so close to Christmas. Parties could never be held on your birthday, and sometimes you had to accept Christmas goodies in place of a birthday cake. On the other hand, I never had to go to school on my birthday, and many times my Christmas and birthday present got combined, and I got a bigger present than a normal birthday would warrant. By my teen years, my birthday often meant a last minute rush to Birmingham for the whole family to spend the WHOLE day Christmas shopping. Though the day was VERY long, it was neat because that was about the only time our family ate out. Otherwise, our family tradition of the birthday person chooses the birthday meal continued. As an adult, I don't mind having a birthday near the holidays. I like Christmas, I enjoy everything being festive and decorated, and it means every other year I'm guaranteed having my birthday with my family. But I never know how to answer (other than yes) when someone asks me what I got for my birthday. Birthday and Christmas come too close together to remember what was what. I may have gotten one big thing, or two things that go together, or I may have several packages under the tree and I get to choose one to open on my birthday. So Sara, how's all that to say...Bobby is a great gift giver, but I don't remember which ones were Christmas and which ones were birthday gifts.